Visiting California governor gives thumbs-up to SZ e-mobility

Video and photos by Liu Xudong

Visiting California Governor Gavin Newsom was intrigued by the charging facilities and different-sized electric buses produced by the Shenzhen-based electric automaker BYD during a trip to the Shenzhen Bus Group Antuo Hill Depot yesterday, hopping on some of the buses for specific details.

Shenzhen was the first stop on the Chinese mainland of his weeklong trip to China focusing on climate action and partnership between the world’s top two economies.

Newsom paid a visit to the Shenzhen Bus Group Antuo Hill Depot to see firsthand bus electrification in the city, the first Chinese city to deploy an all-electric bus fleet, yesterday morning.

California Governor Gavin Newsom sits in a BYD off-road SUV Yangwang U8 during a visit to the Shenzhen Bus Group Antuo Hill Depot yesterday. 

The governor also test-drove BYD’s off-road SUV Yangwang U8, which is capable of doing 360-degree tank turns and has a floating mode made possible by the waterproof and sealed body.

“This is another leap in technology, the next-level leap,” Newsom said with a thumbs-up after the test drive. When asked if he wanted to take one back to Sacramento, the governor jokingly said: “No, I want two.”

“I was inspired by the city and what you’re doing in green transportation. We’ve had the vision. We never thought it would be realized this quickly. It’s extraordinary,” Newsom said to Shenzhen Vice Mayor Wang Shourui, before leaving the city for Guangzhou.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (C) poses for a photo at Shenzhen Bus Group Antuo Hill Depot during his visit to Shenzhen yesterday.

The California governor said that he has been inspired by the extraordinary advancement that has happened in Shenzhen in the past few years.

“To be able to scale this kind of bus network throughout the entire city in just a few years is extraordinary. We have a lot of aspirations similarly in California, but I’ve never seen it done at this scale at this level,” Newsom told reporters, saying “this is a preview of things to come.”

Gavin Newsom (L) poses for a photo with a Shenzhen Bus Group employee in front of a red sight-seeing double-decker bus at Antuo Hill depot yesterday.

The Antuo Hill Depot is one of the 10 most beautiful bus depots of Shenzhen Bus Group, and boasts the largest scale of bus charging facilities in the entire group, according to Shenzhen Bus Group.

It is also equipped with an advanced intelligent management system and houses a smart dispatch management center.

Newsom’s seven-day China trip, which began in Hong Kong on Monday, also covers Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Jiangsu Province.

This is his first visit to China since he was elected governor of California in 2019. He is the first U.S. governor to visit China after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Talking about his expectations on his China trip, Newsom said there is not a more essential issue than climate change and the partnership between China and the U.S.